Posts from ‘Rack Rental’

As continuing pioneers of so many firsts in the CCIE training space, we have noted before on this blog how we have been offering you for over 6 months now, the first and only 100% web-based remote control client that controls not only CUCM SIP & SCCP phones, but also that controls SRST & CME SIP & SCCP phones. And we give it to you at no additional cost to your rental – it’s built-in to every rack for free (no need to install a messy Windows-only software client). And now, we are very excited to offer you another first – the ability to access and control everything in our Voice Racks, with no need for any VPN client.

Simply use one of the following HTTP links below to access your Voice Rack (you must have a valid session during the time you try to authenticate):

Please take a moment to watch this instructional video on how to use this VPN-Less connection to access and control your Voice Rack and IP phones.

So to summarize:

No messing around with silly macros which don’t apply in the CCIE Lab

Actual support for SRST (not only CME)

Who needs VPN?

A software client? Our lips shudder to even think it. No, we live in the real, web-based world

7960′s in our 3 Sites? What’s the point?? They aren’t usable when studying for the CCIE Lab – they’re vastly different in every realm of configuration, which will only distract you from studying for the real exam – so why would we even consider including them? We don’t, save for a PSTN phone, which just like in the real lab, you don’t configure.

If you recall from a past article I wrote about “Which Phone Should I Use?” – A Comparison of Models, you may remember from the graphic that support for remotely controlling SIP & SCCP IP phones in CME or SRST was coming approximately around Feb 14. Well, I now have a new graphic to replace that old one (after the jump):

I have been asked for many years now, “What is the best phone to use when studying for the CCIE Voice exam?”. And while this answer has changed over the years with the different blueprint requirements (with no doubt whatsoever it will change again come next blueprint), the answer for the past year and a half has been a tough one. You see, the actual CCIE Voice lab exam uses Cisco 7965G phones – which you certainly do not need to run out and buy, since all of the same features can be tested using a lesser model, say a 7961 or 2 hardware phone (only difference would be the background image – color and resolution). And certainly, without a doubt, using hardware phones –attached to an INE / GradedLabs Voice Rack using hardware EzVPN through a Cisco IOS router or Cisco ASA– is hands down, the absolute best way to study.

We are very pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with a wonderful company called Variphy that will allow us to give all our remote Voice rack renting clients free remote control access over all of the 7961 phones on our CCIE Voice racks! Variphy Insight is the product, and it is one of the most brilliant inventory control, CDR, phone broadcast and remote phone control software that I have seen in quite some time.

Six months back, we added 3 7961 IP Phones to each rack, and offered a discounted remote control software, but I think that you all will agree that “free” is a slightly more affordable and enticing way of getting you closer to passing your CCIE Voice Lab than “discounted” is.

Oh by the way, we are updating our racks again, and this time adding 2 more 7961 phones to each one. This means you will have 2 7961 phones at the CorpHQ site, 1 7961 phone at the Branch1 site, and 2 7961 phones at the Branch2 site, as well as a PSTN phone – of course.

A while back, Cisco began consolidating all of the CCIE lab equipment used by candidates when sitting to write their practical lab exam. Most of the lab hardware now resides in San Jose, California US, with only the Storage and Wireless awaiting movement. While most of the CCIE tracks’ practical lab examinations are able to be completely self-contained inside a single rack, the pesky Voice exam remains an abnormality with the need for hardware IP phones at the testing site where the candidate may sit for the exam.

Having the IP phones in a completely separate location — and therefore seemingly an entirely different L3 IP subnet — would seem to present a major challenge for candidates attempting to test certain configuration tasks such as Multicast Music on Hold, many QoS mechanisms, SRST, and even smaller things such as CDP discovery and DHCP. So how is Cisco able to get away with having phones at a remote location (5000 miles or more in some instances), and yet still allow candidates to configure and then properly test what they critically need to?